The Beginning, in the land around me
Kei Ito: The Beginning, in the land around me
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University
1400 Remington Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Curated by Hamidah Glasgow
Presented in partnership with the Center for Fine Art Photography, in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center at Colorado State University
January 18-April 2, 2023
Review by Sharifa Lafon
The Beginning, in the land around me is an exhibition featuring the work of multimedia artist Kei Ito. It showcases five interconnected series that the artist completed between 2020 and 2023. These pieces explore Ito’s heritage as a third generation hibakusha—the name given to victims of atomic bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II.
A view of Kei Ito’s exhibition The Beginning, in the land around me at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art in Fort Collins. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ito uses his familial experience at Hiroshima as a foundation to investigate communities of downwinders—the inadvertent victims of windborne radiation from nuclear testing sites and reactors worldwide. The decision to host this exhibition in Colorado is apropos because the state has its own population of downwinders. The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant, which was in operation west of the Denver metro area from 1952 to 1989, practiced poor waste management and failed to follow proper protocols, which resulted in environmental contamination and exposed citizens to radioactive materials.
A video still from Kei Ito’s Aborning New Light, 2021, video (scanned chromogenic print, U.S. nuclear testing footage, sunlight) and sound. Image courtesy of the artist.
While we may be familiar with vivid images of the violence caused by nuclear destruction, downwinders are the lesser known casualties of the wide-ranging nuclear impact on communities. Their experiences are characterized by a slow susceptibility to disease due to exposure to radiation that cannot be perceived with the senses.
A chart of U.S. nuclear tests from July 1945 to September 1992 that is part of Kei Ito’s work Aborning New Light, 2021, ink on paper scroll. Image courtesy of the artist.
Downwinders share commonalities with hibakusha, including suffering from environmental toxicity, compromised health, and trauma. Ito’s work highlights what curator Hamidah Glasgow refers to as “personal, familial, and communal trauma.” [1] The Beginning, in the land around me offers a poignant view into collective pain from the perspective of the victims. The artist utilizes a multimedia approach that holds the gallery space in balance and builds on the narrative of his lived experience.
Kei Ito, Burning Away, 2021, silver gelatin chemigrams (sunlight, honey, various oils) and stones, 20 x 24 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
Burning Away features eight large (20 x 24 inch) silver gelatin chemigrams and a number of rocks that Ito arranged on the floor to create a single installation. A chemigram is a method of alternative photography in which artists produce images by applying resist materials directly onto photographic paper, often outside of a darkroom. [2] They then process the paper in traditional photo chemistry baths: developer, stop-bath, and fixer. This allows the resist to wash away and results in image development that happens in phases. The final photograph displays variations in pattern, color, and texture.
A close-up view of one of the chemigrams in Kei Ito’s installation Burning Away, 2021, silver gelatin chemigrams (sunlight, honey, various oils) and stones, 20 x 24 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ito created his chemigrams with honey, cooking oil, and even motor oil—the only substances available to victims at Hiroshima to treat their radiation burns. Each image evokes the pain of these individuals due to the physicality of how they are produced and the unpredictable image outcomes that are contingent on the speed at which the resist washes away.
Kei Ito, Eye Who Witnessed, 2020-the present, unique chromogenic print photograms (using sunlight, historic, and archival images), 8 x 10 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
Eye Who Witnessed is a grid installation of 108, 8 x 10 inch photograms (cameraless images) depicting the eyes of 54 American downwinders and 54 Japanese atomic bomb victims. The images are unlabeled and interspersed, emphasizing the affinity of shared experience through the subjects’ anonymity and the idea that people are impacted in the same way regardless of nationality.
Kei Ito, Eye Who Witnessed, 2020-the present, unique chromogenic print photograms (using sunlight, historic, and archival images), 8 x 10 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
This installation, and exhibition as a whole, highlights the seemingly universal experience of people who, without agency or knowledge, are subjected to the will and decisions of large interests that consider their lives expendable. The numerical significance of 108 images is connected to the spiritual practice of Japanese Buddhism. In his statement about this work, Ito notes: “to mark the Japanese New Year, bells toll 108 times, ridding us of our evil passions and desires, and purifying our souls, which can be seen as an act of redemption.” [3]
A detail view of Kei Ito’s Eye Who Witnessed, 2020-the present, unique chromogenic print photograms (made using sunlight and historic and archival images), 8 x 10 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
Viewers are enveloped by the visual mantra created through each repetition. The photograms were produced from found images that Ito sourced from books and video interviews and, notably, include images from his own family.
One of the individual prints in Kei Ito’s Eye Who Witnessed, 2020-the present, unique chromogenic print photograms (made using sunlight and historic and archival images), 8 x 10 inches each. Image courtesy of the artist.
The mix of installation, photography, and video work creates a compelling narrative of human-made catastrophe that affects significant populations globally—the author of this review included. The Beginning, in the land around me is on view through April 2nd and is a must-see addition to the Denver Month of Photography Festival for 2023. Kei Ito will also give a virtual artist talk about the exhibition on March 1st.
Sharifa Lafon (she/her) is a curator, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Her current roles include serving as the executive director and curator at Denver Digerati, as a lecturer in photography for the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Colorado Denver, and as a board member of Tilt West.
[1] Hamidah Glasgow, Curatorial Statement, Between Two Cultures: Exhibition Catalog (Center for Fine Art Photography, 2023), 3.
[2] Resist materials can include any household item that blocks the photochemistry from developing the exposed paper. An alternative method of production includes painting darkroom chemistry directly on the paper.
[3] Kei Ito, Artist Statement for the Eye Who Witnessed series in Between Two Cultures: Exhibition Catalog (Center for Fine Art Photography, 2023), 7.
